It seems that the war on thinking has a new weapon: iteration. People drive forward half-baked ideas and plans under the guise of taking an “iterative” approach.

I’m all for iteration. I’ve been able to implement better solutions faster by taking an iterative approach. Iteration allows you to get feedback sooner, manage resources better, and deliver value earlier.

Somehow though, iteration has been co-opted and turned into an excuse to not plan or think. Good iteration still requires thinking and planning. I’d argue that it requires even more. For iteration to work you need to have carefully thought out:

1. What you are ultimately trying to accomplish
2. How each iteration contributes to that overall goal
3. What feedback or information you need to determine whether to change or move forward

Without those questions answered, iteration become little more than random action. Iteration is not just “putting something out there” and seeing if it works. That’s a part, but that “something” should be understood and intentional. I think that sometimes people confuse iteration with constant activity. Iteration should move you close to a goal. If not, then you aren’t iterating.

Some people argue that too much thinking and planning defeats the purpose of taking an iterative approach. They’ll tell you that iteration is about speed. That’s true and speed and thinking are not incompatible. Answering the three questions above doesn’t add that much time to the process. In reality, at some point you’ll have to answer those questions. The choice is whether you want to answer them proactively to drive your action or reactively once you’ve committed time and resources.
Iteration should not be a reactive activity. It should be a well orchestrated plan of making on-going yet incremental progress toward a goal